When choosing a new plan for your mobile phone, one of the most crucial decisions is determining your monthly allowance. It can be not easy to narrow down the right deal amongst the many available.
What data allowance should you get?
Your data allowance will depend on how often you use your phone and what you use it to do.
You will need a large allowance if you use apps that consume a lot of data, such as streaming videos from Netflix, but some people are better off with a lighter plan.
Below are our estimates to give you an idea how much data you will need over the next month. Consider what you do with your smartphone and decide what works best for you. Remember that mobile data is required only when you are out and about and not at home.
Light Use
- My phone internet is minimal – I use it for 500MB
- My phone is used for email, messaging and some social media.
Medium use
- I use a lot of social media and have viewed a few videos, ranging from 2-5GB.
- My phone is used for work. I use it to send emails and download files.
Heavy use
- I listen to a lot of podcasts or music every day and also use social media and messaging apps – 5-10GB
- I stream video over 4G several times per week – up to 10GB
- I stream lots of video every day – 20GB-unlimited
Some networks allow you to use certain apps data-free. Any data that they use won’t be charged against your monthly allowance. Virgin Mobile, for instance, allows you to use WhatsApp Messenger, Messenger and Twitter data-free; Three allows you to ‘Go Binge’ with different streaming apps data-free. When choosing a network, it’s worth considering these factors.
Calculating How Much Data You Need
The best way to determine how much data you will need is to compare the amount of data you use on your phone to figure out how much. This can be done in a number of ways.
- App from your network
- This is the best way to see how much data you use. You can download most networks’ apps, such as My3, My EE and My Vodafone. This app will tell you how much data you’ve used and how much is left for the month. You can download the right app, log in and keep an eye on it to get a good idea of how much you have used.
- These apps also offer other benefits, such as access to your bills, perks and account information.
- The settings of your phone
- To find out more, you can also look into the native settings of your smartphone.
- iPhone: Open Settings – Cellular and select Cellular Data Usage. This will display how much mobile data your phone has used since the last time you switched it on. You can reset the statistics and then return in a month for your usage.
- Android: Open Settings, then Data, then Data Usage. A graph will display your mobile data usage.
- Apps from third parties
- There are many apps available in the App Store and Google Play Store. After a month, you can install a reliable one and set it up for tracking.
How much data do my apps use?
This can vary greatly, but here are some rough estimates of how much data the most popular apps use.
- Email – Meager – 5MB per day. It can go much higher if you send attachments or download them.
- Chrome, Safari, news, and magazine apps – Very little – approximately 50MB per hour.
- WhatsApp Messenger, Messenger, and other messaging apps – Very little, but you can get a few GB per month if your send or receive videos and pictures.
- Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest, and other social media – 50 to 100MB per hour
- Spotify, Apple Music, and other music streaming apps – 150MB/hour
- FaceTime, Skype and other video calls – 150 to 200MB per hour. YouTube, Netflix and other video streaming apps – 1GB/hour for standard definition or 2GB/hour for HD.
Mobile data allowances
Mobile plans have data allowances that are measured in gigabytes and megabytes. A gigabyte is 1000 megabytes. Therefore, a small allowance in MB will be very noticeable. Larger plans are measured by GB.
Deals can be as low as 200MB or as high as 60GB. That’s almost 60,000MB! Although more extensive plans will be more costly than smaller plans, you should still compare offers to find the best deal for your allowance.
Can I get unlimited data?
Unlimited data is available on both SIM-only and handset contracts. However, only a few networks offer unlimited data. Three provides unlimited data on a wide range of phones. Similarly, giffgaff offers an ‘AlwaysOn’ plan that allows you to download unlimitedly but throttles your speed after you have used 20GB per month.
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